Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/366

 36o THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

tluree and twentj yean of tlie past twentT^-flve, mj good friend Thouin, Super- intendent of the Garden of Plants at PariSi has regularly sent me a box of Beeds, of such exotics as to us, as would suit our dimate, and containing nothing in- digenous to our country. These I regularly sent to the public and private gar- dens of the other states, having as yet no employment for them here. But during the last two years this envoi has been intermitted, I know not why. I will immediately write and request a recommencement of that kind office, on the ground that we can now employ them ourselves. They can be here in the early spring. The trees I should propose would be exotics of distinguished useful- ness, and accommodated to our climate. Such as the Larch, Cedar of libanus, cork-oak, the Marronier (Spanish Chestnut), Mahogany f, the catachu or Indian rubber tree of Napul (30*^), Teak tree or Indian oak of Burman (23*) the various woods of Brasil, etc The seed of the I*rch can be obtained from a tree at Monticello, cones of the cedar of Libanus are in most of our seedshops, or may be had fresh from the trees in English gardens. The Marronier and cork- oak, I can obtain from France. There is a Marronier at Mount Vernon, but it is a seedling, and not therefore select The others may be got through the means of our Ministers and Consuls in the countries where they grow, or from the seed shops of England where they may very possibly be found.

He cloBes his letter with a characteristic clause, *^ but let us at once enter on the operations.'*

On May 2, about eight weeks before his death, he being then 83 years old, Jefferson explains in a long letter to Professor Emmett, who finds his time overloaded, how he can reduce his difficulties by careful planning.

Suppose then you give 12 dox. lectures a year: say 2 doz. to botany and zoolo87) 2 doz. to mineralogy and geology, and 2 doz. to chemistry, or I should think that mineralogy, geology and chemistry might be advantageously blended in the same course, then your year would be formed into two grand divisions, 1/3 to botany and zoology and 2/3 to chemistry and its associates, mineralogy and geology. You will say that 2/3 of a year, or any better estimated parti- tion of it, can give but an inadequate knowledge of the whole science of chem- istry, but consider that we do not expect our schools to turn out their alumni already enthroned on the pinnacles of their respective sciences, but only so far advanced in each as to be able to pursue them by themselves and to become Newtons and Leplaces by energies and perseverences to be continued through Hfe.

In his day Jefferson was the recipient of many distinguished honors conferred by societies and universities in America and Europe. Well did DeKay, the naturalist, refer to him in his late years as ^^ the Great Patriarch of American Natural History." His own estimate of his life's work is reflected in the epitaph beneath which he desired to rest:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia.

For the use of the portrait of Jefferson which illustrates this paper the writer is indebted to Mrs. Edwin Kirk, of Washington, D. C, a descendant of Jefferson. The engraving was made from an oil paint- ing by Gilbert Stuart and is traditionally regarded by members of this branch of the family as one of the best portraits of their great ancestor.

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